The Kids With Weapons
by E. Darkbow
Summary: Kate Wolf is just a regular daughter of Apollo or is she? She and some friends leave camp because they feel unimportant, but what happens when a prophecy is made and it just might be about her? Will she save camp? DISCONTINUED. (Perhaps I'll revisit the plot at a later date, but for now, I'll stick with an occasional one-shot.)
1. Chapter 1

**Summery: _Kate Wolf is just a regular daughter of Apollo. Well... maybe not regular considering that she saw Percy drag Grover's body over the boundary. She saw Annabeth crying when Thalia returned. She fought in the Battle of the Labyrinth. She almost died in the war. Now, she and two siblings feel unimportant whenever someone mentions Percy or Annabeth or Thalia or Grover. They run away from camp, but will they be able to believe that they are important enough to fight Eris when she plots to destroy Camp Half-Blood?_**

**This just kinda came to me when I thought of all the unnamed campers. Oh and for those of you who have read The Lost Hero; there will be no Roman Demigods in this. (It would just be too confusing.) It takes place the summer after TLO.**

**Disclaimer: Last time I checked, this is a FAN fiction website. I think it's obvious that I don't own anything except the plot and my characters.**

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I rummaged through all my stuff, trying to organize my tent. It's not easy trying to set a good example for the others. My half brother, Joey, I don't have to worry about. He's two months older than me and lieutenant of this messed up group. Lilly, daughter of Hermes, is only 7 and very troublesome, but good with a knife. David, son of Ares, is nine and a great fighter. And Kira, my half sister, one month younger than me, but very annoying.

We're the weirdest group of demigods you'll ever find. Joey, Kira and I ran away from camp after the Second Titan War a month ago because we still felt unimportant compared to Percy, Annabeth and some of the others. We didn't plan to start a "demigod recruitment" type of a group like the Hunters. We just happened to find David on our first day away from camp. We couldn't just leave him alone next to his mother's dead, blood covered, body. She died trying to protect him from... whatever monster it was. Then we found Lilly in a week and half later trying to kill a hellhound with a NERF gun on an orphanage playground.

Now, I'm responsible for these kids. Joey isn't as organized and quick thinking as me so he stepped down when we decided to choose a leader. I was second oldest so, you can imagine what happened.

"Kate!" came Lilly's voice from behind me.

I turned around to look at her, "What did I say about just barging into someone's tent before asking?"

Her green eyes were filled with fear, which I hope wasn't caused by me.

She said, "Sorry, but there's some guy near our camp. He asked to see you, Kira and Joey."

I dropped the map I was holding. I quickly checked to make sure my never empty quiver was on my back and picked up my bow.

"Thanks for telling me, Lilly," I said, trying to stay calm. "Can you go tell Joey, just Joey, to meet me at the edge of camp?" I didn't want to bring Kira into something unnecessarily.

"Yeah," she said and left my tent.

_I knew it_. _Sooner or later someone will show up for us, we've just been lucky so far._

I walked out of my tent, bow in hand, and went over to where a man was leaning against a nearby tree.

Unfortunately, I recognized him. I was hoping it might be some monster to fight, I've been very bored lately.

The man looked up at me and said, "Hello, Kate."

"What do you want, Apollo?" I asked with a glare while shouldering my bow.

He frowned, "Is that how you speak to your father?"

I shrugged.

"Now, where's Joey?" he asked.

"Lilly went to get him," I said. "But you haven't answered my question; what do you want?"

"Patience. Jeez, and I thought I could actually do this without irritating you."

I was about to reply, but Joey came over next to me. He, too, was holding his bow ready, but shouldered it once he recognized who our guest was.

"Why are you here?" Joey asked.

Apollo looked at the sky thoughtfully and then said, "I was worried."

Joey and I raised an eyebrow at the same time.

"You what?" I asked.

"I was worried about the three of you," he said simply.

"Why?" Joey asked. "Since when are you worried about us? It took you forever to even claim us! Kate's been at camp for, like, five years as a year rounder and you just claimed her!"

The god sighed and said, "I know."

"And Joey has been there for three as a year rounder, too!" I added. "How are we supposed to believe you actually care? You left us for so long."

He sighed again and said, "I know! You don't have to be so mean about it."

But, I wasn't ready to stop "being mean about it". The last time I saw him was when he claimed me after the war and that was for less than a minute. I didn't have a chance to tell him how I felt then, but now I do.

"You claimed us right after the war only because of the oath Percy made you promise! Sure, you gave us apology gifts, but that doesn't fix the years of abandonment!" I said. "Gifts can't change emotions!"

He walked up right in front of me, right index finger pointed at me, his eyes glowing dangerously and said, "You have no idea of what it's like to be a god! All the Ancient Laws stopping us from doing anything and all the stuff we have to do to make this world work perfectly!"

I would like to say I wasn't, but to be honest, I was terrified. I've only heard of Apollo losing his cool a few times... and when he did, it usually didn't turn out good for whoever caused it.

"Sorry, sir," I said, adding the "sir" part reluctantly.

Joey, being the protective brother that he is, said, "You're right; we don't know. I'm sure Kate didn't mean to offend you, she's just frustrated."

I shot him a "I can handle this without your help look" which he only shrugged to.

Apollo looked at him and then said in a slightly calmer tone, "Tell Kira to be careful."

"Will do," Joey promised.

"Well, I have to go before Zeus gets angry that I'm spending so much time with you," he said. "Bye, Joey. Kate."

He took a few steps back, half nodded to us and then started to glow. Joey and I averted our eyes. When the glow died down, I stared at the spot that Apollo had occupied.

"Did he do anything to you?" Joey asked.

"No," I replied without taking my eyes off the grass that was starting to straighten from being crushed by Apollo. "I'm fine. Go tell Kira what he said about her being careful, but don't tell her anything else."

He nodded, seeming to know that I'm not in a mood to deal with any insubordination. Then Joey went back to our camp.

I stayed there for about a minute then went back to camp.

David came up to me and said, "Who was that dude?"

"It's not important," I told him. "Can you go help Lilly put her stuff away? We're moving." I didn't want Apollo to be spying on us or something, it shouldn't be too hard to keep out of his sight, considering it's almost sunset.

"Sure, Kate," he said cheerfully and ran off, while I went to look for Kira and Joey.

I found them in Kira's tent talking about Camp Half-Blood.

"Hey, guys," I said as I walked into the tent.

"Oh, hey," Kira said. "Why didn't you tell me dad was here? I wanted to see him."

"Sorry, Kira, I just thought it might be better if you didn't talk to him. We got into an argument." I explained.

Joey nodded, "He probably would've disintegrated Kate if I hadn't said anything and I think if you were there it might have been worse on all of us." I rolled my eyes when he said that he "saved me" because he really didn't.

"Okay," Kira said. "What do you think he meant by 'be careful'?"

"I don't know. Just take his advice and watch your back," I said. "Anyways, we have to go."

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't want Apollo to spy on us or anything."

"Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Joey asked with a curious expression.

I sighed, "I don't know... I guess I just want to prove that I can take care of your guys or something."

Kira nodded and Joey said, "Alright I'll go take down my tent. Can you two manage?"

"Of course we can, Joey," Kira said. "We're not children, you know."

He smiled, "I know that."

"Just go pack your things," I ordered.

He nodded and left us alone.

"You, too, Kira. I don't want to waste anytime," I said. "It'll be best if we get as far away from here as we can until it'll be too dark to travel."

"Alright, Kate," she said. "But umm... can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"If... if dad really, like, had a vision about something happening to me, then... can you give my gold necklace to Lilly? She's been very close to me."

I hated hearing the scared desperation in her voice and seeing it in her brilliant blue eyes.

"I will, Kira," I promised. "And if it helps; I think that he was just trying to scare us into going back to camp, but either way, the rest of us will always have your back."

She nodded, "Thanks."

I nodded and left her tent to gather my own things.

Within a few minutes, we were all packed and ready to go.

"Where are we going?" Lilly asked as she skipped in front of us.

"Good question," Joey said, turning to me.

"Umm... I think we should head south," I said. "It seems like it's going to get colder."

"Okay and I think we shouldn't travel for longer than two hours," Kira said. "We'll need time to start a fire once we find a place to camp for the night."

"Yeah," Joey agreed.

We continued to walk in silence. It might have been an hour until I saw a shape move in the trees in front of us. I signaled for everyone to stop. They all drew their weapons and dropped their backpacks; Joey, Kira and I took out our bows and notched a few arrows each, David took out his two handed sword, and Lilly tapped her gold bracelet and as it spiraled out into a shield, she lifted her knife.

Three _dracaenae _jumped out in front of us, hissing. I instinctively let my three arrows loose at one of them and pushed Lilly and David behind me and my siblings.

The snake women fought us one on one. Because of the closeness of the monsters, I reluctantly took out my sword. A bow would be useless against their tridents when they're right next to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kira and Joey do the same thing.

As we slashed, stabbed and blocked, we became further and further from each other. Obviously, these _dracaenae _knew that we were less formidable when separated.

Then, somehow, the one fighting me managed to get my wrist in between the points of her trident. I, with no other choice, dropped my sword to free my wrist. She smiled triumphantly and was about to stab my chest, but with the point only half a foot away from me, she froze with a bronze blade sticking out of _her _chest. With a look of horror, she exploded into golden monster dust. Behind the spot she had been occupying stood David with his sword raised.

"Thanks, David," I said as I picked my sword up. "Go make sure Lilly's okay."

He nodded and ran off someplace. I turned to look at who would need my help: Joey or Kira. I gasped when I saw what state Kira was in. Her left arm (which thankfully isn't her sword arm) was bent at a weird angle, she had a long cut on her cheek and her jeans were stained with blood. I felt my own wounds explode in pain as I ran over to help her.

The monster saw me coming and smiled, causing Kira to look around to see why she was smiling.

_No!_ I wanted to scream a warning as I saw that the snake woman had taken this as a distraction to stab at Kira's unprotected neck, but my mouth wouldn't work. Kira turned around at the last second and tried to move out of the way of the trident but it still skimmed her skin pretty deeply, by the look of it.

I stabbed at the monster's face causing it to turn into dust immediately.

Joey, too, turned his monster to dust and ran over to Kira who had fallen to the ground.

Seeing the amount of blood loss she was starting to have, I ran over to my poor sister and knelt down by her side.

"Kira!" I said desperately and brushed some hair from her blood covered face. She was unconscious. Then I turned to Lilly and David. "One of you, get some ambrosia or nectar for Kira."

But Joey was already on it, he handed me some ambrosia which I carefully put into her mouth for her and said, "Kira, you better swallow!"

David and Lilly had put their weapons away and were now staring in shock at Kira.

"Kate, she isn't swallowing," Joey said while starting to treat her wounds and ignore all his cuts. "She might be... almost..."

"I know..." I said and I felt tears coming to my eyes. "Try that hymn to Apollo. He might listen."

"Why don't you?" he asked.

"You know I'm not skilled at healing. I'm a poet and archer."

"Alright," he said and started to mutter in Ancient Greek.

He stopped and looked at me as if to say "it won't work" but I shook my head and said, "Look."

I held Kira's hand when her eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes weakly, "Hey, what did I miss?"

"Don't waste your energy talking," I ordered as I stroked her hand gently.

"Come on, we both know that I'm almost dead," she said quietly. "Remember what you promised me and... you can keep all my stuff Kate, it's yours."

"No, Kira, don't lose hope," Joey whispered to her.

"Kira, don't you dare leave me alone with Joey," I said.

"Yeah, don't leave her- hey!" he exclaimed when his brain finally processed what I had said.

Kira and I smirked. Then her smirk turned into a sad smile and she said, "Sorry, guys. Keep on running. Love ya."

She closed her eyes and didn't open them again.

"No..." I moaned and squeezed her hand.

Joey bowed his head and muttered a few prayers. I did the same.

After a few seconds passed, I looked over at Lilly who was crying into David's shoulder. The son of Ares himself looked like he was trying hard not to shed any tears. Kira had been their sister for about a month now. She was my sister, too, but she treated them differently. She to them was a real sister, I was more of their protective leader.

I carefully took Kira's gold necklace off and wiped some blood off of it. I then stood up and walked behind Lilly. Gently, I put the necklace onto her neck. As she looked around at me, I crouched down in front of her and brushed away her tears as I let mine fall.

Lilly slowly touched the golden sun pendent on the necklace and I said, "She wanted you to have it. Make her proud by wearing it always. Know that she loved you."

She nodded and then I moved in front of David. "She loved you, too. Now you're the third oldest. Can you help me out?"

"Yes," he said simply.

"Thank you, would you take Lilly on a little walk around the area while I and Joey discuss some things. If you need anything just shout."

David nodded and took Lilly away by the hand.

I walked over next to Joey and started to actually cry when I looked at Kira's body again.

He put his hand around me and I let him hug me. After a few minutes I finally gathered up some strength to say something.

"How could he not answer your prayer?" I asked and knelt down to hold Kira's limp hand again.

Joey's face was pained as he said, "I don't know. Maybe it was to punish us for being rude to him earlier."

"Do you actually believe he would do something like that?"

"No," he said.

"But why not save his own daughter?" I asked.

He didn't reply for a while but then whispered, "He knew she would die."

"What?"

"He told us to tell her to be careful." he explained. "He must have had a vision or something of her dieing."

I would have said a bunch of insults to the stupid sky so the stupid sun god would hear me and apologize, but I only said, "Curse him."

"I know how it feels," Joey said gently and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I shouldn't have asked you guys to leave camp with me," I said quietly. "I should have left alone. Kira might still be alive.

"Don't say that. We finally got to feel like real heroes out here," he said. "Besides if you were on you own, some monster would have killed you on your first night."

"True..." I said with a sigh.

We had another moment of silence but it was ended by Joey asking, "What should we do with her body? We can't just leave it here."

When he said that I felt like the leader again, not the little heartbroken sister. So I wiped away my tears before I answered.

"Umm...we could put it in her tent tonight," I suggested. "and then tomorrow we'll look for a hospital to leave it at. It's not like we could just walk back to camp and be like: 'Hey, nice to see you all again. Here's Kira's dead body. Bye!' That would just be weird."

He chuckled, "Yeah, it would and I guess that's a good idea."

"Okay, I'll go find Lilly and David," I said. "You start to set up camp. Put her body in her tent and wrap it in her bed sheet."

He nodded and I left to find the two youngsters.

I saw them sitting by a nearby creek talking to each other. I didn't show my presence because I wanted to know what they were talking about. Both of them had tear stained faces.

"I still don't understand how Kira can be dead," Lilly said.

David sighed, "She is. She did it to protect us."

"I know, but why?" she asked.

"She... wanted to make the monster go away so we could be safe and happy."

_Wow_, I thought, _A son of Ares being good at comforting sad girls._

"Okay."

"Yeah, so let's stop crying," he said. "We have to be brave for Joey and Kate. I bet they wanted be alone to cry."

I frowned. Now that sounded more like an Ares' kid. Thinking of others as weaker.

"Yeah, we do have to be brave for them," Lilly agreed in her cute voice.

Then I saw something that shocked me again. I could barely believe what I was seeing: David, son of Ares, just kissed Lilly, daughter of Hermes, on the cheek and then she kissed his.

The only thought in my head after that weird scene was, _Oh great! I have two in-love and depressed kids to live with and take care of! Nothing is wrong with that! Yup, it's perfectly normal... All thirteen year old girls have to deal with this._

I stepped out from behind my spying bush and said, "Come on, guys. We're setting up camp over there."

"Okay," they said in unison and we walked off to where Joey was starting to set up camp.

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**So what do you guys think? Leave me some reviews and I'll see you in Chapter 2**


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy Holidays! (I know I'm late) I was too lazy to update...**

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Once we got there, I took my tent out of my magically expanded backpack carefully and put it up in a few minutes. I put inside my blow up mattress and a few of my belongings, but I kept everything else in the bag. I walked out of my tent and told everyone to get some sleep while I kept watch first. Just like I do every night.

I sat down and stared at the moon, thinking about all that happened today. I was even able to ignore my fear of the dark because I was thinking so much.

_It should have been me, _I thought, _Kira didn't deserve to die like that._

My thoughts were interrupted by my trained ears hearing a quiet noise from behind me. I knew it wasn't the wind.

"I know you're there," I said in a bored voice without taking my eyes off the moon.

Joey sat down next to me and said, "Asking Artemis to knock some sense into Apollo for letting a maiden die isn't going to help you feel any better."

I grinned, "That's actually not a bad idea, but no. I wasn't doing that, I was just thinking."

"Go get some rest, you deserve it," he said and normally I would refuse but I was too tired from everything.

"'Kay," I said and headed to my tent.

I don't remember falling asleep but I must have the moment I touched my bed.

_In my dream, I was sitting in the passenger seat of a bright red car... I could tell it wasn't a normal car because it was flying. I rolled my eyes, knowing that it was Apollo's sun chariot._

_"I don't really want to talk to you now," I said to Apollo. He wasn't anywhere in sight but I could tell he was the one sending this dream to me._

_The air shimmered next to me and the sun god appeared holding the steering wheel._

_"Well, I want to talk to you," he said._

_"You good as well killed her by not helping us," I said, not really caring if I sounded rude._

_He didn't respond so I continued, "And why now? We've been on the run for a month and you suddenly show up, warn us to be careful, and now you send me a dream!"_

_He glared at me the same way he had done earlier today, but I didn't cower or anything because he couldn't hurt me in a dream... at least that's what I hope._

_"Kate," he said. "I understand how you feel-"_

_"No," I interrupted. "You don't." _

_He acted as if he didn't hear me and continued, "-but this is all I can do."_

_I didn't say anything in response._

_"If it helps; I brought her body to camp," he said. "I know that you wouldn't."_

_"Thanks," I mumbled._

_He nodded, "Can you do me a favor?"_

_Slightly surprised at the question, I shrugged._

_"In the town about ten minutes away from your camp, there's an orphanage. I can't tell you too much information, but I want you to check it out," he said with a wink. _

_Before I could I ask if there were demigods there, he snapped his fingers and everything went black._

When I opened my eyes, it was already dawn.

I walked out of my tent and found everyone else already sitting around on our beach chairs, discussing what we should have for breakfast

"Morning," I said.

"Morning, Kate," Joey and David replied while Lilly just nodded. Apparently she's still in shock with what happened yesterday. I was, too.

"Look, we have to go to the town," I said.

"Why?" Joey asked. "We're fine here, plus we still have enough food for a few more days."

"I know... but I, uh, had a dream... and besides, I think we could all use some showers," I said.

He must have realized that Apollo had sent me a dream because he mouthed _oh_ and then said, "Yeah, I bet there's a YMCA or someplace where we could use a public shower and I suppose we could use a nice breakfast."

"How does Friendly's sound?" I asked. "I bet that every town in this country has at least one Friendly's in it."

"That sounds good," Lilly said.

"I guess," David agreed.

"Okay, sorry to make you all pack your stuff again-" I started to say.

"It's okay, Kate," Joey interrupted. "We know that you're doing your best to keep us alive and keep this group running smoothly."

I smiled and nodded, "Everyone be ready in five."

Lilly and David set off to work and I was slightly surprised to see them holding hands. Maybe the tough son of Ares has a little crush... wouldn't his father be proud...

Joey looked at me, "What did he say?"

"He wants me to check some orphanage in the town," I said. "Probably to find some siblings."

He sighed, "Probably. More responsibility for us," He paused. "And I've been thinking..."

"Yeah?"

"Should we, like, allow any demigod to join our, um, group if they want? So, we could be a little like the Hunters with their recruiting system, ask them to join or take them to camp," he said.

"I don't know, Joey," I said. "For now, we'll just accept anyone who wants to stay with us. If too many do, then we'll add some requirements that they have to meet or something. I don't think I'm ready to have a group as large as the Hunters, but less experienced, at my command."

"Yeah... I guess it could be difficult."

"Exactly, so for now, let's just focus on getting to that orphanage and find out as much as we can about the information Apollo couldn't tell me."

"Well, can we at least have a group name? Something to make us more official?" he asked.

"I suppose... If you want to make one; go ahead," I said.

He rolled his eyes, "You are so predictable."

"I know," I said cheerfully and headed to my tent.

He chuckled behind my back.

* * *

"I'm full," David said as we walked out of the Friendly's.

"Good," I said. "We won't have another meal like this for a few months. We shouldn't waste our money."

"Okay," he said. "And I have a question."

"Yeah?" Joey said.

"Where did you get the money from in the first place?" he asked.

"We're no children of Hermes, but we stole it from Camp Half-Blood's store before we left," Joey explained. "There was only about five thousand dollars or so. I know it seems like a lot but we've already used two hundred of it for weekly food... and we just used another fifty at Friendly's."

"Oh," he said. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment then asked, "Will you ever take us to go see Camp Half-Blood? I want to meet my brothers and sisters."

I sighed, "Preferably not, David. I know you would like to meet them, but I don't know. Chiron and Mr. D might punish me and Joey for running away from camp. Trust me, kitchen duty is not fun."

"Well," Joey said. "Chiron would probably just scold us for a few minutes, but Mr. D might go a little overboard."

"Yeah," I said and then looked at the map we took from a nearby bus station. "The only orphanage here is a few streets away. Come on."

A mortal man bumped into me and said, "Sorry, miss." Then he hurried off after eying my bow in my hand nervously.

_Weird... mortals should see it as an umbrella through the Mist... Ah, well..._

We kept going. In about five minutes, we reached the old brick building with a sign that said... something... with my dyslexia it was hard to tell.

"Okay, Lilly and David, I want you guys to stay out here," I ordered as I put away my bow. "There might be monsters in there. Keep your weapons ready, ears open, and eyes peeled for any sign of danger."

They nodded and stood next to a streetlight.

"Come on," Joey said to me and I followed him inside the orphanage.

At the Friendly's, we had planned to sneak in, but the moment we stepped inside, a woman's voice said, "What do you kids want? I haven't seen you in these parts before." We turned around and saw an old lady glaring at us.

"Oh," Joey said. "Um... sorry, ma'am, we were just..."

"We just wanted to research how orphaned children feel," I said quickly, then added, "It's for our Language Arts summer packet. We, uh, have to write a short story and we want to write from an orphan's point of view. So, is it okay if we interview a few of the children here? I really want to get an 'A' to start the school year well."

_Hmm... I think that's a pretty good lie,_ I thought proudly.

"Alright," she said. "Follow me."

We followed her warily until she opened a door and said, "Okay, children, this young man and lady would like to ask some of you some questions. Be good, I'll be back in a few minutes." Then she walked away, which in my opinion seemed a little weird.

The group of kids stared at us, there was at least a dozen or so. Each seemed to be working on something artistic; some were painting, others were drawing and some were making pottery.

"Well?" a girl asked.

"Oh, yeah," I said, trying to think of a simple way to discover if any of these are demigods. "Um, does anyone have a paper and pen that I could borrow?"

Joey gave me a questioning look, but I didn't notice.

"Here," a boy about ten said as he handed me a sheet of paper.

"Thanks," I said.

I quickly scribbled down "If you can read this, please come stand with us; we know who one of your parents are." in Ancient Greek, knowing that any demigod would understand it and would probably want to know who their parent is.

I held up the paper and said, "Okay, if you can read it, do what it says. We, uh, have to do this to test your... uh, creativity levels."

Joey, seeming to catch on, said, "Yep, and then we'll talk in the hallway."

Almost immediately, a pair of twins stepped forward. I can't believe I didn't notice their blonde hair and grey eyes before. A girl and a boy. They're definitely Athena's. Then, a small boy around five with golden hair and blue eyes stepped forward next to the twins.

_Great... another younger brother for me to take care of._

"Anyone else?" Joey asked.

Some kids shook their heads or said "no" in response, but the rest just simply ignored him.

"Alright," I said. "Come out into the hallway."

The three kids (and yes I can call them kids, I'm probably a few years older than them) followed me and Joey into the hallway.

Joey and I took our bows out and I said, "There's not much time to explain, but, please, go get your things and come meet us here before that lady realizes what we're doing."

"What?" Athena's boy asked. "Why?"

"Just listen to her or you'll end up with an arrow in your leg," Joey said and unfortunately... he was speaking from experience.

"See! My dream was right!" the younger boy exclaimed to the girl.

"Dream?" I asked. "Oh, never mind, you can tell me later. Just get your things and meet us here as soon as possible."

It must have been either: A. Joey's threat or B. my stern expression that got them to do what I said or C. maybe the Fates decided to make something easy for me.

The kids left and came back less than a minute later. Joey and I rushed them outside before that lady would notice that she's missing three kids.

"Come on," I said and walked over to where Lilly and David were standing, bored. I felt relieved when I saw that they were not holding hands, hugging, or anything slightly romantic. That could just cause trouble for me if their fathers don't approve of a young relationship.

I turned around to face them and said, "I'm glad that you decided to come with us without us having to explain everything first."

The twins nodded, but they seemed to be studying everything I and Joey did. Maybe Athena is telepathically telling them that we're friends, but they still aren't believing it.

"Okay, I'll make this as simple as I can and believe it; it's the truth," I said. "You are demigods. Half human, half Greek god. We are too. Apollo, god of archery, medicine, etc. is my dad as well as Joey's." I pointed at the younger boy and continued, "And you're probably our half brother."

"Cool!" the boy exclaimed.

"Wait," Joey said. "We'll get to the bad part soon."

"What about our parent?" the girl asked.

"Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," I said. "That's at least my best guess. You have the same eye and hair color as all her children. You're also giving me a calculating look as if you're trying to plan how to ditch us if we turn out to be enemies."

"I told you guys!" the younger boy said. "That man in my dream said something about a lady called A... A... Athena being your mommy!"

"What man?" Joey asked before any of us could even open our mouths to say something.

"He said his name was Fred."

Joey and I grinned. He asked me, "Didn't he call himself 'Fred' when he helped Percy on his quest to save Artemis?"

"If what we heard about that quest was true, then yeah," I replied.

"Okay," said the girl. "You still haven't told us about the 'bad part'."

"Right," David said just when I opened my mouth. "There are these monsters that smell us, then they find us and try to eat us! Then we fight them with pointy swords!" He did a short demonstration with his sword.

"Well, that's the easy way to put it," I said. "So, pretty much the ancient monsters are real and will kill you, like he said, but we can train you and show you how to fight these monsters and stay alive."

"And if you don't want to stay with us and live in the wilderness; we can take you to this camp for people like us. Kate," Joey gestured to me. "And I ran away from there. We felt unimportant."

"Um, well, we'll think about it," the older boy said uncertainly and looked back at the orphanage.

"Come on, Natalie! Nick!" the little boy exclaimed. "We hate the orphanage. Let's have some fun!"

"Alright, Chaz," the twins said in unison after sighing.

"Shouldn't we get out of here before some monster find us?" Lilly asked.

"Good idea, Lilly, but first we should introduce ourselves. I'm Kate Wolf, daughter of Apollo," I said.

"Joey Richards, son of Apollo."

"David Knight, my dad is Ares!"

"Lilly Woods, and my daddy is Hermes."

I smiled at the pride filled in Lilly's voice when she said her name. Then I said, "Do you guys know your last names?"

The twins looked at each other and said, "No."

"Yes," Chaz said. "My name is Chaz Gold."

"Gold?" Joey asked. "Wow, dad must have taken forever to find your mom..."

"I know, right," I said. "But we really should get going."

"The woods are that way," Lilly said, while pointing down the street.

"Yeah, I've been there before," Chaz said. "Are we camping?"

"Yup, unless it rains," David explained. "Then we find a hotel."

He, Lilly and Chaz started walking toward where the woods supposedly are. The rest of us followed them.

I felt very nervous because I haven't been in the real world with such a large group of demigods before. Well, there was the time when everyone went to Manhattan to fight the Titans, but at least then I knew that I was going to fight. Now, I don't and instead of skilled demigods I have three untrained demigods; two with only a month or so with experience and I have Joey. If we meet up with a monster, it's going to be a hard fight.

"When can we get weapons?" Nick asked while looking at my bow.

"Well," I said. "We have some extra weapons that we stole from camp. So, first, we'll train you a bit with each type that we have. Then whichever you're best at; you can keep."

"Cool," Nick replied.

"Yeah," Natalie agreed.

"Oh," Joey said, remembering something. "How old are you guys and Chaz?"

"Eleven," the twins answered together. "And Chaz is five."

Joey nodded. I signaled for him to come behind the twins, just so we have a better look on everything.

"Great," I muttered to Joey. "Athena's brats are already being annoying; saying the same thing at the same time."

Thunder boomed in the distance, so I rolled my eyes and said, "Sorry for having my own opinion about something!"

It thundered again.

"Fine, sorry, Athena!"

The sky was silent so I assumed I was forgiven.

The twins and Chaz stopped to stare at me with questioning looks while Lilly and David just ignored it and continued their conversation.

"What?" I asked. "I apparently insulted Athena."

"Oh," Natalie said and turned the boys around.

Once they looked away, Joey whispered, "Brats?"

"I have a grudge against one of their siblings."

"Grudge?"

"More like a rivalry."

"Rivalry?"

"Love rivalry."

"Love... what?"

I finally turned to face him. "Love rivalry. A daughter of Athena is dating the guy that I like," I explained.

"You're jealous of... a daughter of Athena?" he asked then looked thoughtful for a moment. "Annabeth? You have a crush on Percy?"

"Well, a girl can dream..." I said, looking away.

He rolled his eyes. "He's too old for you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, I found out that I wasn't forgiven for calling the twins brats because we were just a few streets away from the woods (according to the twins and Chaz, at least) and I heard an owl hoot. Then it started pouring. Gradually at first but then it became almost impossible to walk.

"I said 'sorry'!" I exclaimed angrily. Then asked Natalie and Nick, "Do you know any nearby hotels?"

"I'm pretty sure that there's a Best Western if we take a left at that stop sign," Natalie said.

"Okay, let's high tail it down there, then!" Joey ordered.

I followed behind the group as Natalie and Nick took the lead. I glared at the sky, which by the way is very hard when it's pouring. I just had this weird feeling that something important is happening and I don't know anything about it. There just has to be something going on! First, Apollo shows up randomly and tells us that he actually cares about us. Then, he sends me a dream telling me to go to this orphanage where we find three half bloods to replace... Kira... Besides, it's raining for unknown reasons, too. I don't actually believe that Zeus would just make it rain because I insulted his oldest daughter. Well... maybe he would... but something bigger must be happening.

Nick's voice interrupted my thoughts, "Okay, we're here."

I looked around quickly and realized that we were standing in front of a Best Western. I openned and held the door open for the others, then said, "Joey, come help me rent a room. Everyone else stay here near the door. These are the nice kind of places in which demigods usually get killed in."

The newbies seemed to understand that I'm in charge here because they nodded while Joey and I walked up to the main desk. I wasn't too shocked at who I saw sitting there, reading a magazine.

Joey grinned, "Hey, Fred."

The man looked up from his magazine and said, "About time you got here. Now, where's Chaz?"

"Look, we just need to stay here for the night, so why don't you just give us a room and stop interfering with our lives," I said rudely, but I really wasn't in the mood to talk with Apollo again.

He got this overly calm look on his face. "Kate, don't speak to me that way."

I rolled my eyes in response. I guess its obvious that I've always had a weird relationship with him. Yeah, I'll admit that I love him, but he is the most annoying and "un-fatherly" guy. Well... maybe except for Kronus, but that's different.

"Yeah, so, um... dad," Joey said. "Why didn't you just send a satyr to get Natalie, Nick and Chaz? I'm sure he or she would have been better at explaining everything and all than we are."

"I can't tell you too much just yet," Apollo said. "But there was this prophecy and like I said; I can't say a lot. It has something to do with you and Eris."

"Eris?" I asked. The name rang a bell in my head but I couldn't put my finger on where I heard it before.

"Minor goddess of chaos and discord. You'll find out more sooner or later," he said. Then he slid from behind the desk and started walking to the others. In a cheerful voice, he said, "Chaz! Come give your old man a hug!"

Chaz spun around and looked at Apollo. Then he looked at me, so, I nodded to reassure him that Apollo's safe. He ran forward and hugged his long lost dad.

"Are you really my daddy?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, Chaz," Apollo said while pulling away from the hug. "Now, lets make it official." He snapped his fingers and a hologram of a golden lyre appeared over Chaz's head.

_Of course, he claims the cute five year old before he even learns to fight, but claims me after a war (in which I almost died in several times) just because Percy made the gods swear to claim their children._

* * *

**So, everyone enjoying the feature presentation so far? (Yes, I know the part about finding the twins and Chaz was kinda crappy... I'll try better.)**

***grabs some popcorn and starts eating happily***

**I know I'm enjoying coming up with what happens.**

**Please, stay tuned for Chapter 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, guys. First of all, I'm sorry that this took so long to update. I've had most of this chapter's rough draft done on my iPod Touch notes but I didn't have a lot of time to actually retype it on my PC. Secondly, I really do enjoy reading feedback (aka reviews). And lastly, if any of you readers feel like I haven't updated in a long time (like a few weeks), please PM me and I'll try to get the next chapter up within a week or so. Sometimes, authors just need that extra push.**

* * *

As Joey and I walked over to the others, I couldn't help but glare at Apollo for a bit. He looked up at me and I quickly turned my gaze over at the twins. They, for some reason, seemed very uncomfortable.

Natalie looked at her brother than walked over to me and whispered, "Is that really Apollo?"

"Yep," I whispered back.

"Then why aren't we bowing in respect?"

"He-"

Apollo interrupted me, "Ah, I don't really mind. I'm one of the more laid back gods, but that doesn't mean that I don't deserve respect."

"Of course not," I muttered, knowing that he was talking about the way I speak to him.

"Well, I _usually_ am," he said, looking at me with this look that kept me from making another "smart" comment.

Natalie nodded, then after a while asked, "Will Nick and I ever meet our mom?"

_Oh, the tough-y. How is he going to respond to that? But to be frank, I wouldn't be surprised if Athena just showed up to give her daughter a hug and then leave._

"That's up to Athena," he said. "She might stop by sometime, she might not."

"But wasn't she one of the gods who was more willing to help demigods?" Nick asked, joining the conversation.

Apollo shrugged, "She can do whatever she wants and I rather not try to make her do something she doesn't want to." He looked at Joey and me. "Well, I should go. You have a suite on the third floor." He tossed me a key.

"Thank you," I said, trying to get this conversation over with so that he can leave.

He nodded and turned to Chaz. "Listen to Kate. She can be annoying and too worried about everything, but she knows things," he whispered.

I rolled my eyes because there really wasn't a reason for me to pretend that I didn't hear what he said.

"But, daddy!" Chaz said. "Can't you stay with us?"

"I'm sorry Chaz," Apollo said. "Your grandpa, Zeus, will have my head if I stay too long."

"I have a grandpa?" Chaz asked, wonderment and excitement filling his voice.

"Yea, Kate will tell you all about him and everyone else," Apollo said. Then he took something out of his pocket and gave it to Chaz. "Here, Happy Late Birthday. I would have stopped by yesterday, but I had a lot of stuff to do."

He stepped back a bit and started to glow...

"Don't look!" Joey and I exclaimed, simultaneously.

Luckily, everyone listened to our outburst and looked away. After a few seconds Joey said, "Alright, he's gone."

"Why couldn't we look when dad left?" Chaz questioned us with a curious expression.

"He was turning into his divine form, his true godly form," I said. "Any mortal who would dare look at it would die."

"Oh..." he replied. "So, who's Zeus?"

"We'll tell you when we get to our room," Joey said. "We don't want mortals who walk in here to think that we're some stupid kids that think that myths are real."

"Good idea," I agreed.

"Why thank you," he replied with a small bow.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Anyways," I said looking at the elevator. "Who wants to press the elevator buttons?"

"I do!" Chaz and Lilly shouted.

_Is there a single kid on this planet who doesn't like to press elevator buttons?_

I sighed. "Alright, Lilly, you press the button for the elevator to open and, Chaz, you can press our floor number," I compromised for them.

* * *

Within half an hour or so, we were all settled in our suite; we made sure we had enough money to pay for this, checked our food supply, etc. It was becoming very boring, so, Joey and I had decided that it would be the best time to catch up the newcomers.

Natalie, Nick, Chaz, Joey and I were gathered on the couches, while David and Lilly were sparring behind us.

"Okay," I said. "So we already explained some of the basics: you're demigods; half human, half Greek god and all the monsters from the Greek myths want to kill you for dinner."

"Yeah," Nick confirmed. "We've got that much covered. So, can we please move on and get to the fighting?"

Joey sighed. "We'll try to make this as quick as possible, but there's a lot of information we have to cover."

"Mhm."

"Well, I guess we could start with some descriptions of the gods," I decided. "But before we get to that, names have power, so, while we're out in the open, we should try to not same of gods, titans, and/or monsters."

They nodded, already seeming to zone out.

"So, there's our grandfather, Zeus," Joey said.

"Our?" Natalie asked.

"Athena and Apollo are half siblings, which would, technically, make you my cousin."

"Oh," Natalie said.

"As I was saying," he continued. "Zeus is Lord of the Sky and pretty much anything sky related. The weather reflects his mood, which is why it thundered when Kate insulted your mother. And... whatever you do, I don't care if you go jump off a cliff while riding a blue giraffe with green stripes, but never, ever get on Zeus's bad side. He's one of the... um..." He glanced out the window nervously and then whispered, "-easy to offend gods who would just love to zap you with lightning."

_A... blue giraffe... with green stripes...? Am I missing something?_

"Anyways, there's his brother, Poseidon..." I started to explain.

* * *

Joey and I finished the catching them up with recent events, important gods, a few titans, and some basic monsters in about an hour or so. For some reason, I found myself sitting on a couch, twirling an arrow in my fingers, and thinking about what Apollo had said about some prophecy...

_I am not ready for a quest!_ I thought. It just didn't seem like something I would do. I've been in the background of things for so long that I just can't imagine myself being in the center of something important.

"Hey, um, Kate, can I ask you something? Two things actually."

I looked up and saw Natalie standing next to the couch.

"Yeah," I said, absent-minded.

"Why didn't you call Apollo 'dad' or something to, like, show respect for him?" she asked. "You did say he's your father."

The first thought that went through my head after she said that was, _What is with this girl and respect for Apollo?_

Then, looking away from her, I sighed, remembering how many times I've explained this to people. "If he ever does anything that earns my respect, I swear I'll give it to him. Simple as that." I thought about it more then said, "I mean I haven't even seen, excluding today and yesterday, since after the war, a freakin' month ago. Now, he just randomly starts showing up, acting like he actually cares about me and Joey."

The moment I said that last sentence, I regretted it. _I know that Apollo _does _care about me and Joey, but..._

Natalie studied me for a while then said, "That's not the only reason, is it?"

I looked back at her, narrowing my eyes slightly. That was not a topic I liked to discuss. Only Joey knows that reason and I made him swear on the Styx not to tell anyone without my permission.

She saw my expression and said, "Alright, alright. You don't have to tell me."

I nodded. "What else did you want to ask me?"

"Can you show me how to fight, now?" she asked.

"I suppose. It's not like I have anything better to do at the moment," I said and grabbed my backpack (which was on the floor next to the couch). "Hold on, let me find a weapon..."

I opened the backpack and pulled a celestial bronze knife out of it.

"We'll start with a knife," I said, handing the knife to her. "A lot of your siblings are good at using them."

She took it into her hand and started to examine it while I took out my own knife from its sheath that's strapped to my lower leg, under my jeans. It's always good to have backup weapons on you. Thats why I have my bow, quiver, sword, and knife with me almost all the time.

I tried to remember those last few combat classes at camp when everyone was shocked that Joey, Kira, and I were actually trying to become better in something other than archery. They never suspected that we were just doing it to get enough experience to run away.

"Alright," I began. "Don't be frustrated if it isn't easy at first. You'll get better with more practice."

"Shouldn't be too hard..." Natalie said thoughtfully. "I've watched a lot of the Karate Kid movies and learned a thing or two."

"I took karate for two years before I came to camp and it didn't help me much. So, I doubt watching Karate Kid will help," I said turning around a little to hide tears forming in my eyes. Mom used to bring me to class every Tuesday, Thursday, and sometimes Friday, but then... she passed on...

"Um..." I found Natalie's hand waving in front of me. "Earth to Kate!"

"Sorry, I zoned out." Then I muttered something about stupid ADHD to keep her from prying into my personal life.

"Knife?"

"Er, yeah."

I showed her some basic moves that should be enough to kill a common hellhound. She was actually pretty good. I could just see the cogs in her brain trying to figure out which move would work the best in different situations.

I looked at my digital watch: 8:30 PM. It was specially made for demigods; waterproof, indestructible, and we can even read it with dyslexia. (Those Hephaestus kids are geniuses when it comes to making demigods' lives easier.)

"Okay, Natalie-"

"You can call me 'Nat'," she interrupted.

"Okay, Nat," I corrected. "I think you have the basics down. So, I guess, you can keep the knife for now, just until I show you how to use some other weapons."

"Really?"

"Yeah, a demigod has to have some kind of protection at all times." I reached into my backpack again and took a sheath out. "I personally like a leg sheath for my knife better, but I don't have anymore of those. Just some that go around your waist."

"Thanks," she replied as she took the sheath form me. She managed to put it on herself and then slipped her knife in.

"No prob," I said, twirling my knife in my fingers.

"Hey, Nat! Guess what!"

We looked behind us and found Nick standing there, holding a sword and grinning ear to ear.

"What?" his sister asked.

"Joe just showed me how to fight with a sword!" he swung his sword around a few times.

"It's 'Joey', not '_Joe_'," Joey said as he walked into the room.

I looked at the twins and back at Joey. "Why don't you two show each other what you learned while Joey and I go talk in the bedroom."

I didn't wait for their replies, I just grabbed Joey and dragged him out of the room.

Once we were out of earshot, I asked, "You were teaching him, like, right now?"

"Er... yeah," he answered uncertainly. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Oh, um, no... I just..." I said. "Never mind."

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

I found it kinda strange that they both wanted to learn how to fight and both asked us at roughly the same time, but it's nothing. It was probably just their twin telepathy or whatever a doctor would call it.

Joey glanced at his watch and said, "Well, it's nine o'clock. Maybe we should get some rest." He got up and started to leave the room.

I nodded and followed him out of the room. Back in the living room, Nick and Natalie were talking about something.

"Guys, we should get to bed," I said. "We're going to need some rest if we want to be wide awake in the morning when we can, hopefully, leave."

"Leaving already?" Nick asked.

"We don't have enough money to stay here for long," Joey explained. "Besides, remember that monsters will be able to find us easier if we stay."

"Oh."

I yawned, "Do you guys mind if I take one of the beds? I haven't slept in a real one in two weeks."

"Ah, I don't care," Nick stated. "I can take a couch."

"Me too," his sister agreed.

"I don't really care either, sis," Joey said.

"Don't call me that!" I snapped.

"Sis! Sis! Sissy! Sis!" he teased in response.

In almost lightning speed, I notched an arrow and sent it flying a millimeter from his face.

"You were saying?" I asked, smirking.

"Sorry. Jeez, take a chill pill or something," he said, his eyes going back and forth from my bow to my eyes.

"Um, well, we'll go tell Chaz and the others to get ready for bed," Nat side while pulling her brother away to another part of our suite.

Joey and I stood there awkwardly for a while, then Joey asked, "Have you been thinking about the prophecy dad mentioned?"

"Slightly," I replied. "I just don't know if I'm ready to become like Percy and the others."

"Me, too. Sure, it would be nice to become famous like that, but after living in teh shadows of heroes for so long... I've just grown used to it."

"That's exactly how I feel," I muttered, not sure if Joey heard me because he kept talking.

"Strange, isn't it? Because in a way, we always wanted to be like _them,_ but now that we have the chance to, we aren't sure if we actually want to."

"I know, right," I sighed. "Whatever. We'll think about this when the time comes. Let's go find the others."

He nodded and we walked through our suite, following the arguing (I don't know why they were arguing, but they were) voices. We found everyone else in their pajamas and they appeared to be fighting about who gets to sleep where.

I groaned and did the only thing that came to my mind. I shouted, "Would you all just shut up!"

They looked over at me and Joey silently.

"Natalie, Nick, you get that couch," Joey said as he pointed to a dull brown couch. The twins took some blankets and headed over to it. "I get that one." He pointed to another couch.

He was about to assign a couch or bed to everyone else, but Lilly interupted him. "Can me and Dave share a bed?"

"No!" I immediately exclaimed. I noticed that Joey was trying hard to suppress his laughter. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?" David asked from beside Lilly.

_This is exactly why I was worried about them getting into a relationship._

"Um... well..." I stammered, trying to think of an age appropriate way to explain it to him.

"It's... just a safety hazard," Joey said, regaining his composure... slightly. "We wouldn't want you to push each other off the bed by accident."

The two looked at each other then simultaneously said, "Pppllleeeaaassseee...?" with their best puppy dog eyes.

I sighed. "Fine, yeah, sure. Do whatever you like. I'm too tired to come up with a good reason for you not to."

_Stupid puppy dog eyes..._

They cheered and got into the bed while Joey, once again, was trying hard not to crack up.

I rolled my eyes at his behavior.

* * *

"Kate... Kate... Katie... Katie..." I heard a soft voice saying while someone was pushing me.

I sat up and found Chaz standing next to my bed.

"Huh?" I asked as I glanced at my watch; it was almost midnight. He should be asleep.

"I can't sleep," he whispered.

I groaned. "Well, um, what do you usually do when you can't fall asleep?"

"I don't know! I just close my eyes and wait until I sleep, but it's not working!"

"Try praying to Hypnos," I suggested.

"Who is Hip Nose?" he asked.

"Not 'Hip Nose', his name is 'Hypnos'. He's a minor god of sleep," I explained.

He tilted his head in concentration for a few seconds, then said, "It's not working."

"Umm... do you do something each night before you go to bed?"

"Sometimes, I eat Cheetos," he replied thoughtfully.

I looked out the window and saw that the gas station across the street still had its lights on.

I sighed. "Alright, I'll go buy some," I said. "If anyone wakes up, tell them that I'll be right back."

"Okay, Katie."

I got out of the bed, put some jeans on over my pajamas, grabbed a few dollars, made suer that my knife was still on my leg, and went outside.

I did the usual look left, look right, and look left again before crossing the street. I was slightly surprised that I would go out in the middle of the night to buy a kid some gum. Well, that kid is my brother.

I carefully opened the door (the door had a bell that jingled as I opened it) of the gas station and stepped in. It was one of those weird gas stations that were half gas station and half Dunkin Donuts. There were a few tables and chairs on one side of the store. Some shelves of things were on the other side. A cashier guy, in his late teens (probably), was reading a newspaper behind the counter.

I looked around and spotted a shelf of chips on the wall. I walked over to it and tried to find some Cheetos. I didn't see any.

Behind me, I heard the bell above the door jingle as someone entered. I looked over at who it was. It was just another guy. He looked like he was, too, in his late teens, but unlike the cashier, he looked a little drunk.

"How's life, Greg?" the guy asked the cashier.

Greg looked confused for a second, but then, in a normal tone, said, "Not too bad, I'm just stuck here all night. What about you, Luke?"

_Luke... I haven't met someone with that name since... my first day at camp. _

There was something odd about their conversation. It took all my willpower not to pull my knife out. I just looked back at the chips trying to find the freaking Cheetos that for some reason weren't there.

"Pretty good," the dude replied.

I pushed some of the bags of chips away and found a bag of Cheetos. I took the bag and walked over to the counter behind Luke so he could pay first.

"Can you get me a glazed donut?" Luke asked. "Actually, make that two, so I could have one for my friend here."

I side stepped away from Luke. If he planned to sweet talk his way into kidnapping me or something, I sure wasn't going to let him.

"Are you sure that you're Luke Castellan?" Greg asked. "You never order glazed donuts. Oh, whatever, I'll go get them." He walked into a room labeled 'Employees Only'.

It took me a moment to process that that guy's name is 'Luke Castellan'. I pulled my knife out warily becuase I just knew that the guy had to be a monster. Who else would have used a demigod's name?

"Easy, Wolf, I'm just here to talk," the drunk teenager-monster-Luke-dude said. Then after noticing that I didn't budge, he added, "Well, forgive me for using my son's name!"

_Oh, great... I hope this isn't about the fact that I let Lilly sleep in the same bed as David..._

I lowered my knife. "Lord Hermes?"

* * *

**Well, guys, how was that? And again I apologize for taking so long. It usually doesn't take me this long to get a chapter up. Oh, and FYI I _might_ change my pen name sometime soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to present Chapter 4!**

* * *

"Is it really that hard to figure out?" Hermes asked.

"It is when your living on the run for a month now and suddenly your father starts showing up and then your uncle, too," I said. "I wasn't expecting you or any other god, for that matter, to be here."

Greg walked out of the employees only room and handed us our donuts. (And yes, I took one because I seriously doubt that Hermes would like to kidnap me or something.)

"Thanks, Greg," Hermes said and gave Greg some money. "And I'll buy the Cheetos for her, too."

"Alright," Greg replied and printed out a receipt. "Here ya go."

My uncle nodded and sat down at one of the tables scattered around this place.

"Sit," he said, gesturing slightly to a chair across from him. Without much of an alternative choice, I sat down in the seat he had indicated.

"How's Lilly?" he asked.

"Um, good, I guess," I said, carefully.

"You guess?"

"Well, she seems a little..." I paused, searching for the right word. "distraught about my sister's death, but otherwise she seems okay."

"Mhmm," he replied.

We sat there for about another minute or so, just eating our donuts. Finally, Hermes broke the silence by saying, "Well, I suppose I should thank you."

"What for?" I asked, surprised by what he said. It was rare to hear the words "Thank you" from a god.

"Taking care of Lilly."

_Oh... Don't blame me for not knowing what he was taling about, it's midnight and I've had quite a long day._

"It's no problem, my lord," I said. "She's so sweet and pretty cool for her age." I found myself have a flashback of when Joey, David, and I found her fighting that hellhound with a Nerf gun. It was hilarious, but I still didn't think that a toy would kill any monsters.

He sighed. "Yeah, she is. Just like her mother." He muttered that last sentence dreamily.

"Well, sir," I yawned. "It's kinda late and I've had a very long day..."

"Just a moment. Do you think that you could pass for a sixteen year old?" he asked.

"Um..." I wasn't exactly sure of what to say, but I couldn't just not respond. "Well... I suppose I can, but it would be easier if maybe my hair was a little shorter and..." I glanced a lock of my brown hair that fell into my face. "and maybe if I had a few highlights."

"Good." He nodded and then looked at his watch. "Well, I should be going. Good night, Miss Wolf."

Before I could ask him what's so good about me being able to pass as a sixteen year old, Hermes started to glow and I was forced to avert my eyes. When I looked back at the chair he had been in, it was empty, he even took his donut.

I quickly finished my donut and left the gas station, slowly making my way back to our hotel room.

I opened our door and stepped in. Immediately, Chaz popped over next to me out of no where.

"Did you get my Cheetos?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered and tossed him the bag of Cheetos. He ripped open the bag in a matter of seconds and started eating happily.

He paused only to say, "Thank you, Katie!"

"You're welcome," I said. "I'll be back in bed if you need me, but just try to finish your Cheetos and go get some sleep."

He nodded.

* * *

The next day, we were all sitting around in our hotel room doing whatever and I started to worry about if we should go back to the woods today, that is if it ever stops raining, or just stay in the hotel for a little longer.

"KATE!" Lilly shouted, waving her hand in front of my faces and effectively taking me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I asked, 'When we're leaving the hotel?'" she said.

"Oh, um, I don't know exactly when, but we should a few hours after it stops raining," I told her.

"Why a few hours after it stops?"

"The grass has to dry. It'll be easier for us to travel if the ground isn't soggy."

"Alright," she replied and skipped off somewhere, fingering Kira's necklace.

I looked around at the others; Joey was practicing archery while listening to the weather report on the TV, David was sleeping on the other side of the couch I was sitting on, Chaz was admiring his bow (turns out that that object Apollo had given him was a bow that expanded out of a little toy car), and the twins were talking urgently in hushed tones in another room. I was kind of suspicious of what they were talking about, but I was too lazy to go walk over there.

I slowly found my thoughts drifting back to the prophecy Apollo had mentioned. I honestly didn't know if I was ready to be part of a quest. After all, I've spent almost all of my life in the shadows of events, never being in the spotlight.

_Wait a second..._

"Joey?" I asked.

"Yeah...?" he replied, fixing his gaze onto me instead of his target on the wall.

"Have you noticed that Apollo said that we have a prophecy to fulfill, but he hasn't told us what it is?"

He shrugged. "He probably didn't tell to make us curious about what it is and he knows that Camp Half-Blood is the only source, other than him, where we can find out what it is. He didn't tell us what it exactly says because he wants us to go back to camp."

"I suppose... but you don't think he could have lied to us about there being a prophecy? Just to get us to go back to camp?" I asked thoughtfully.

"Maybe," Joey said. "but he most likely didn't 'cause he _is_ the god of_ truth_."

I didn't say anything in response. My brother did have a point. The only problem I had with what he said is that at times I feel like I absolutely have to know something... and that was one of those times.

"I need to find out what it is," I stated as I got off the couch.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Joey asked.

"Iris-message. Come on, help me find a place to make a rainbow," I said.

"Um, okay."

In a few minutes, we, with some difficulty, managed to create a small rainbow in the small "kitchen" of our hotel and by "kitchen" I mean the corner that has some cabinets, a sink, a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a coffee-maker.

I dug into my pocket for a drachma. (It's always good to carry a few around.) I pulled it out and tossed it in my hand a few times.

_Someone who knows about the prophecy... Someone who knows about the prophecy and I can trust... Someone I can trust..._

I threw the drachma into the rainbow and said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Will Solace, Camp Half-Blood."

_Will Solace? _Joey mouthed.

I nodded.

The rainbow shimmered. A boy with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes showed up, sharpening some arrows.

"Hi, Will," I said, trying to get him to notice the IM.

He looked up and almost dropped the arrows in surprise. "Kate! Joey!"

I smiled, but Joey only nodded curtly and then left me alone with Will. They had a rough past that I rather not get into at the moment.

"You _two_ are alive," Will stated.

"Yes, yes we are. Don't you remember not to underestimate us?" I said. Then without allowing him to answer, I continued, "I just have a quick question and then I'll leave you alone."

"Bu-" he started to say, but I cut him off.

"Has there been any new prophecies since we left?"

"One," he said cautiously. "Why do you want to know?"

"Not important," I snapped. "Can you tell me what it is?"

"No," he said. "The other head counselors and I aren't supposed to even let anyone know that there even was a prophecy made until we find out who the heroes mentioned in it are."

"But you told me," I said.

He smirked. "Exactly. So, now, you owe me an answer to my question."

_I am an idiot._

I didn't say anything. I just waited for him to ask his question.

"Where are you?" he asked with genuine concern.

My expression must have told him that I wouldn't tell him because he said, "I swear on the Styx that I won't tell anybody about this conversation and what was said in it."

I hesitated for a few seconds. "We're in a Best Western hotel somewhere in northeast New Jersey."

"Want me to come get you guys before you get hurt?"

"No... we're fine," I said. Then, feeling that this conversation was becoming too informative for Will, I lifted my hand to disconnect the message. "Bye, bro."

"No, wait!" he exclaimed, looking at something I couldn't see through the IM. I heard the clip-clop of hooves coming from his side of the call. Chiron!

_There is no way I am going to talk to him. He'll just try to make me go back to camp._

"Remember what you swore!" I said and then quickly drove my hand through the rainbow as Chiron showed up next to Will, looking worried, but yet, relieved.

I was breathing hard, but I didn't quite know why. It wasn't like I had just fought for my life or anything like that. I guess I was just worried about facing what I've ran away from.

I continued to look at the place where the Iris-message had been before I disconnected.

_Will offered to bring me back home. Maybe... I should have let him... I _do_ have friends at camp. _

"You okay?" I heard Joey ask from somewhere behind me.

I looked over at him. "Yeah, but... I think..."

"You think what?" he questioned.

"I..."

"Spit it out already!"

"Never mind." I just couldn't tell him that I was starting to feel just a little, tiny bit homesick.

"No. Don't never mind me again."

I sighed. "I promise, Joey, I'll tell you as soon as I make up my mind."

"Okay..."

* * *

The next day, we were all ready to check out of our hotel. It was a sunny day and I just couldn't wait to get out of here and back outside to the fresh air.

Joey and I walked over to the main desk in the hotel lobby to return our room key and pay for it. To my relief, there was an actual Best Western employee sitting there behind a computer and not Apollo.

"Here you go, sir," I said as I handed the key to the guy.

"You children do know how much that suite cost you, correct?" the man asked.

"Er, no, sir," Joey said. "but we have money. I doubt that we don't have enough to pay.

"Alright," the man replied. He read something something on his computer. "That would be $432.12."

_Damn... why couldn't Apollo have gotten us a smaller room? We would've fit... maybe..._

I looked at Joey. He shrugged and reached into his backpack for the money. "There you go," he said as he handed the cash to the employee.

The guy took the money and typed something into his computer. A receipt printed out from a small machine next to it. He handed the paper to Joey.

"Thanks," I said.

Then Joey and I walked out of the hotel to where the others were waiting for us.

"How much money do we have left?" David asked.

"Well, if we add how much we spent on food, some clothes, this hotel, and that motel... then we have about $4,000," I said.

David nodded.

"What happens if we run out of money?" Nick questioned, looking worried. "Will we die?"

"No, you'll sooner be killed by a monster than out of bankruptcy," Joey said firmly.

Nick looked like he was about to question what Joey said but Natalie elbowed him in his side and he decided to remain silent.

After maybe walking aimlessly in the streets, we finally found a small forest. It took us maybe another fifteen minutes to find a perfect clearing to stay in.

* * *

The next few days were full of training Chaz and the twins, but sadly there have been only a few monsters to kill. It was just to easy for Joey and I. So, I even let Lilly go kill a hellhound all by herself. It turned out to be barely a challenge for her.

This area was so nice, but we decided to move. The lack of monsters was starting to worry us, Joey and me particularly. Monsters were usually always out and about. Well, during the war most were staying near Kronus's army, but there isn't any war going on at the moment... at least that I'm aware of.

As we continued walking, looking for a new place to stay, I spotted a clearing with a small river to our left.

"Hey, guys, there's a clearing with a river over there," I said. "Let's go check it out."

We cautiously stepped out of the trees and into the clearing, scanning the surrounding area for any threats. I almost completely froze in horror when I noticed what was standing by the river further downstream.

I whispered, "Joey, please, don't tell me that that's what I think it is."

The others noticed my hushed tone and moved a few paces back into the trees.

"Oh, Hades, no..." Joey muttered, gripping his bow tighter.

"What's that over there?" Chaz asked a little too loudly. (I almost wanted to strangle him for that.)

Unfortunately, the monster heard him. It lifted it head back and roared. It knew that there were demigods near, but hopefully he didn't know exactly where.

"The Nemean Lion," I answered quietly. "Nat, Nick, Chaz. You're not ready to fight him yet." The twins were about to protest, but I didn't let them. "I'm trusting you three to leave us if I or Joey tell you to. The moment you think you're a safe distance from us, Iris-message Chiron and tell him what happened. Answer any questions he has. Do I have your word?"

They nodded reluctantly. By the look on his face, Chaz didn't completely understand what was going on, but he nodded anyways.

"Stay in the trees where the lion can't see you," I told them. Then turning to the others, I asked, "Lilly, David. Are you ready to distract him?"

"Of course," David said, dropping his backpack and getting into his fighting stance.

"You know it," Lilly agreed, also readying her weapons. (Her backpack was inside mine because she was simply too lazy to carry it around.)

"Good," I said. "Joey and I will shoot at its mouth and unless you two see a perfect shot at his mouth, don't risk it because you won't hurt him at all if you miss."

"Yeah, we know it's fur is like a shield," David replied. "So, can I just go fight already?"

"In a second," Joey decided as he notched an arrow.

I heard Chaz whisper very quietly, "Good luck, Kids With Weapons."

_Kids With Weapons? I'll have to remember that._

The monster roared again and looked over at where we were standing. Lilly and David took that as their signal to attack. They started slashing at the lion and were doing pretty well in dodging its mouth and paws, but they already got a few scratches.

I also notched an arrow. "Joey, are you ready for this?"

"No. Not really," he said. "but since when have I been ready for anything?"

"Good point," I muttered. Then I raised my voice so Chaz and the twins, who were already a few yards away from us, could hear me. "Guys, get further back into the forest. Try not to attract attention to yourselves."

I didn't want them to get hurt by trying to fight. It has only been a week since they found out that they're demigods.

The lion roared once more, but this time it was of frustration because Lilly and David kept jumping around him, never giving hem a clear shot at them.

Joey and I released our arrows over and over. (They kept reappearing in our enchanted quivers.) We almost hit his mouth. Once, we were so close but that damn lion figured out what we were doing at the last second and moved out of its way, resulting with our arrows bouncing uselessly off its fur. It seemed almost as if he didn't notice our attempts to wound him at all.

"We _can't _do this," I said to Joey while firing more arrows.

"We _can_," He disagreed.

Jast as he said those two words, the lion swung his paw around and managed to hit Lilly. He sent the poor seven year old flying through the air. Lilly crashed into a tree and slumped to the ground. David, somehow, managed to keep the lion from finishing Lilly off, but I knew he wouldn't last much longer.

I let my bow disappear. Thanks to the enchantment Apollo put on it, I can make it appear and disappear at will.

"I'm going in," I said to Joey as I unsheathed my sword.

Without waiting for him to reply, I ran over to Lilly, quickly gave her some ambrosia (She looked at a cut on her side and fainted after eating the ambrosia.) and then tried to stay calm as I went over to help David with the lion.

The kid was doing pretty darn well for someone his age, but what else can you expect from a child of the war god?

I slashed and stabbed at the monster, trying to provoke it to roar again so that Joey could get a clear shot at its mouth. The lion swung his paw so quickly that I barely saw it coming. It hit my left arm, causing me to fall onto my side.

"Ow..." I moaned, but I didn't give up that fast. I uneasily stood back up only to see David flying through the air and, too, crashing into a tree.

I looked over at the two cuts forming from my shoulder to my elbow and winced.

_Well, it's not _that _bad..._

The lion seemed to be admiring his handiwork of getting Lilly and David down. I looked over at Joey, who nodded and called something behind him to where the twins and Chaz were probably hiding. Somehow, by seeing the look on his face, I realized that this really was an impossible battle for us to win.

_No, don't think that way. Think about the American Revolution. The side everyone thought would lose, won. Ah, who am I kidding, this is impossible._

I jogged back to the lion and tried my best to... I don't know... kill it. I slashed, blocked, dodged, and stabbed. I could already feel my sword's hilt becoming slippery with sweat. I haven't fought like this in so long.

Joey ran over to David to make sure he was alright and I knew that if Joey wasn't firing arrows anymore, we had an almost zero percent chance of sending the Nemean Lion back to Tartarus where it belongs.

I, honestly, didn't know what else to do, other than to continue attacking the lion and hoping that by some miracle, I would be able to kill it.

We really didn't have much hope because as I jumped (somewhat pathetically) behind the lion, I noticed that Joey, apparently didn't have his sword on him.

Just because of noticing that little detail, I didn't see a rock in front of me and I ended up tripping over it, causing me to land on my stomach. I rolled over to realize that I had dropped my sword when I fell.

"Kate!" I heard Joey shout. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him take his bow off of his shoulder, but I didn't focus on what he was exactly doing. I had more pressing matters at hand.

The lion seemed to smirk as it began to tower over me. I saw Joey's arrows bouncing harmlessly off its metallic fur.

I tried crab walking back away from the lion, but kept stumbling. It seemed to have enough of me because it swung one of its claws at my shins, leaving some gashes, and then it put both paws onto me, forcefully. Half of each paw was on one of my arms while the other half was one my chest.

The lion pushed down on me and I felt the air rush out of my lungs. It started to lean its head down at me, growling, daring me to move, to try to escape its clutches.

I involuntarily yelped as I felt some of the bones in my arms and ribcage start to crack.

There was nothing I could do to stop him, nothing Joey could do, nothing David, Lilly, the twins, or Chaz could do to stop him.

_Help... please..._

_Any of you freaking gods would do the trick..._

_...dad..._

_Please...?_

For some reason, the monster pulled back for a second. The air rushed back into my lungs very quickly. I tried to control my breathing and do my best to ignore the pain I was in.

The lion looked confused, but then it focused its attention back to me. It seemed like it was about to, probably, rip my throat out. Then the sound of a horn pierced through the air. The lion took a few steps back away from me, trying to find the source of the noise.

And that was the last thing I remembered before falling into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Well... how was it? This my first time writing so much action, so I hope it was good.**


	5. Chapter 5

I opened my eyes. I was in... a tent, on a sleeping bag. I tried to sit up, but the wounds on my chest hurt too much. I laid back down.

Then I heard a girl's voice. It was vaguely familiar, like I heard it years ago. She said, "Oh, good. You're up. Your friends were starting to get worried."

The girl was standing at the entryway of the tent. Her hair was, an almost white, blonde and had dark brown eyes. She was dressed in jeans and a green t-shirt.

"Where am I? Who are you?" I asked slowly, still a little dazed.

"Hunters' camp," she replied. "I'm Vicky, daughter of Nike."

"Nice to meet you," I responded politely, which was oddly uncharacteristic of me and then I realized the severity of the situation.

_Joey, Nick, and Chaz are in a camp filled with girls who despise almost a hundred percent of Earth's male population... Not good..._

I glanced at my leg.

_Well, at least I still have my trusty knife._

"Are my friends okay?" I asked, sitting up again, but this time, ignoring the pain that came with it.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't really know. I haven't spoken with them," Vicky answered.

I started to get up.

"I don't think you should do that yet," she stated. "You had some serious injuries."

"Too bad," I said. "I need to see them."

Looking reluctant, Vicky helped me get up and we walked out of the tent. Too my relief, all of the gang were alive, here, and looking okay, but they were sitting there alone. It seemed like all the hunters had locked themselves in their tents to keep away from the boys.

"Hey, Katie," Chaz greeted as he noticed me. The others flowed his example, but they wisely refrained from calling me "Katie".

"Kate," Joey said, standing up. "Thank the gods you're okay. We were worried. I mean, you've been out for the past hour."

I managed a weak smile. "Don't worry I'm fine. Not in top condition, but I won't die."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vicky disappear into a tent.

I looked back at Joey and asked, "Well, what about you?"

"Ah, we're okay for the most part," he said. "Lilly is almost completely healed up. David has a few deep wounds, but he'll be okay. The twins and Chaz don't have a scratch... yet."

"Then, what's wrong?"

"Well, Nick and I got a few death threats from the passing hunters. Chaz, on the other hand, didn't get a single one, thanks to his cuteness. You know, the usual," he said casually.

"Okay," I said. "Just, please, try not to do anything that'll make those hunters feel like they should carry out those threats."

"Nah, because I would just love to become a human porcupine," he said sarcastically.

I smiled. "Other than the fact that you now like porcupines, what else did I miss?" I asked.

He lowered his voice and said, "Artemis questioned me about what happened with the Nemean Lion... and it was terrifying; the way she looked at me."

"Your point?"

"I doubt she believed what I said, so she'll probably ask you," he explained.

I sighed and looked around. There were a bunch of tents all around the campfire that we were standing.

"Well, make yourself at home," he said with a grimace. "I don't think we'll be out of here anytime soon."

Chaz stood up next to him and asked, "Joey, can you teach me shoot better? Next time there's a monster, I want to help you guys."

"Sorry, Chaz," Joey replied. "but I don't think that it's a good idea for us to practice archery here."

"Aww..." Chaz whined.

"Don't worry, Chaz," I said. "Joey and I will try to get us out of here as soon as possible."

"Okay," he said.

We sat down after a while because there really wasn't a point of just standing around in boredom. We didn't say anything for the next few minutes. Well, at least I didn't say anything. The others might have, but I didn't notice because I was too busy trying to think of a way to get us out of the Hunt's camp without being noticed. It seemed impossible.

I heard some very quiet footsteps behind me. I turned around to look at who it was. I almost immediately recognized the black hair, the electric blue eyes, the silver circlet, and the aura of importance and power around her.

"Thalia," I said. I have never actually talked to her as a friends, but we've exchanged some words.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Oh, yeah. I remember you. You're that Apollo girl."

_That Apollo girl? _

"Kate, right?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Lady Artemis wants to talk to you," she said.

I turned back to Joey who mouthed, "Told you." and then I stood up.

"I'll be right back, guys," I said.

I followed Thalia to Artemis's tent. I went in alone, trying not to worry about the fact that I'll be in the presence of an easily offended god again.

Artemis was sitting on some kind of animal fur rug, petting a small deer. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a French braid and her freakishly silver eyes were, thankfully, trained on the deer instead of me.

I automatically changed my mental gears from the rebellious, slightly rude leader to the serious, polite leader. I really didn't want to mess this up too badly when the people I care about are within reach.

"Lady Artemis," I greeted. I got on a knee, rested my left elbow on the knee that was up, and bowed my head slightly. I knew it was a guy-ish thing to do, but there was no way in Hades that I would bow or curtsy. I just wasn't that kind of girl. Besides, I couldn't just not show some kind of respect because, honestly, Artemis took second place of my "Goddesses To Never Accidentally Anger" list. (Athena took first.)

"Take a seat," she said. It wasn't the usual greeting I get or what I expected, but it'll do.

I got up, walked a bit closer to her so we wouldn't be talking over nine feet. Then I sat down.

Artemis studied me for a while, in silence, before she asked, "So, you are Kate Wolf, possibly the only daughter of Apollo who dared leave camp before becoming of age?"

"Yes, my lady," I replied. "But I wasn't alone. My brother and sister helped. Without them I would probably still be stuck in camp."

"That is quite true," she agreed. There was another moment of silence, but this one felt more awkward. "How exactly did you come across the Nemean Lion?"

"We were looking for a place to stay for a few days," I said. "I spotted the clearing where the lion happened to be. We wouldn't have gotten into a fight with it if Chaz hadn't raised his voice to ask what it was."

"What else can you expect from a boy?" She had said the word, "boy" like all hunters do; filled with disgust, causing me to feel just a little bit angry...

"Don't call him that," I snapped with a hint authority in my voice. My thoughts quickly became cloudy, like they always do when I get into a protective mood. "Yes, he's a boy, but he's also my brother and you have no reason to fill your voice with disgust. You don't even know him."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at me. "Do not forget who you are speaking to. Just because you are my niece does not mean you may disrespect me."

"Sorry," I mumbled, knowing that it wasn't wise to not apologize. I looked down and a little towards the left. I knew facial expressions pretty well and which ones make you look sorry even if you entirely aren't, which I wasn't.

I could feel her gazing into my eyes, but I didn't look up. She was most likely trying to find out what I was really feeling. Eventually, she nodded. "Apology accepted. Anyhow, my hunters and I were on the Nemean Lion's tail for a while, now, but it kept evading us as if we weren't worth its time. Monsters rarely leave such a large group of demigods alone, very rarely. I have been studying monsters for millennia and the best I could assume is that it was searching for something or someone."

I thought this through, wondering if it might have been looking for us or, more specifically, me.

"According to what your brother, Joey, said, the lion seemed to have a particular interest of you during the fight."

I thought back to the battle and after a moment, said, "Yeah, I suppose it did."

"He also said that even though he shot as many arrows as he could at it, it did not leave you and attack him," she said.

"Do you... do you think it had anything to do with that prophecy?" I asked.

"You know about the prophecy?" she asked back.

"Apollo mentioned it when he stopped by a week ago, but he didn't tell us its exact words. He just said it had something to do with me, Joey, and Eris, I think. Can you, please, tell me what the prophecy is, my lady?"

"I do not know if I am in the correct position to tell you it."

"Please," I implored. "I have to know."

She sighed. "If I remember correctly, it was:  
'The trio of unknown siblings on their way,  
Meet friends, two of whom will steal and betray,  
Go back to lead the struggle against the Monsters of Strife.  
Alas, the stretched isle's only true haven will lose life,  
Unless the one who was thought to be forever lost returns,  
And the daughter learns.'"

"Damn it," I muttered. Those were the only two semi-intelligent words I could come up with to say.

Artemis gave me a questioning look, so I said, "It seems that by the word, 'struggle' the prophecy means battle, but I thought this would be like a quest for something, not... _this_."

"You do not have to worry yourself about this just yet," she said. "For now, go relax with your friends. It's almost time for lunch."

I stood up to leave her tent. "No, thank you," I declined. "We really should get going; we wouldn't want to bother you and your hunters with our presence."

"No," she contradicted while also standing up to be at almost the same eye level as me, but I was still a few inches taller. "You are hurt, as are your friends. It would practically be suicide if you just waltz out of our camp."

"We can take care of ourselves," I countered.

"Really?" she asked. I noticed a mischievous glint in her eyes but it was only there for a second. "Then, show me."

"Wha-"

I was cut off by Artemis swiping her knife (that seemed to come out of no where) at me. I quickly jumped back to avoid getting my favorite neon green t-shirt from getting torn.

I must have had a look on my face of confusion and horror because she lowered her knife just a bit.

"You said you could take care of yourself," she reminded me. "Prove it." She, then, swung her knife at me again and this time stepping forward while doing so.

_So much for acting like civilized leaders..._

I took my knife out of its sheath to block her strike. Our blades met for only a second; she was already slicing at my left arm. I tried to move out of the way again, but she saw what I was trying to do and quickly changed her aim, leaving a new cut on my arm.

She continued to professionally swing her knife at me and I kept blocking poorly. I wasn't concentrating on what I was doing because my mind was still doing its best to process the fact that she attacked me.

I attempted to switch to offense by swinging my knife at her neck, but she simply ducked and managed to skim the side of my thigh with her blade. Thankfully, the cut didn't seem to deep, but, unfortunately, it still bled and stained my jeans.

_Oh, come on! It'll take forever to get the blood off!_

I tried to fake that I was doing the predictable "feign left to attack right" move, only to attack left anyway. Somehow, I managed to make the smallest cut on her arm.

She didn't seem to notice the cut I made. She spun around to slash her knife with much more force at me and to catch me off guard. I jumped back once more, but this time she got a cut on my cheek. I counterattacked with a swing to her neck again. This time, instead of ducking, she simply used her free left hand to grab hold of my wrist. She quickly twisted it before I had time to react and effectively made me drop my knife. Then, still having a hold on my hand, she side-kicked me in my abdomen and let go of my wrist, letting me fall to the ground.

_And the best aunt, who almost kills her niece with a pointy knife, is Artemis, Greek goddess of the Hunt! Ow..._

I landed on my back painfully and I immediately found my dear aunt's knife pointed at my neck.

"Do you accept defeat?" Artemis asked.

I looked for any openings to attack from my position, but there weren't any. She would have me back on the ground before I could do anything, let alone, reach my knife.

"Yeah," I answered quietly, disappointed that I lost a fight in half of a minute. I could usually stand a few minutes against someone I knew that I would lose against, but I guess it was different from fighting a goddess.

Her knife disappeared magically and she offered me a hand. I took it and got up, while trying to ignore the pain in my chest from this morning with the Nemean Lion.

"You did well for a normal demigod, but if I had used my full power, I would have had you down in less than two seconds," she said.

I grimaced. "I guess that means that we have to stay here for another day or so."

"Correct," she agreed. "Did you honestly think that I would simply let you leave? Apollo would never forgive me if I put his children in danger."

I shrugged without looking at her, feeling kind of humiliated, because after all, she was in her twelve year old form and I should be ale to defeat a twelve year old girl; I've done it plenty of times before. In other words, she hurt my pride.

I picked up my knife, twirled it a few times, and put it back in its sheath.

"Don't get me wrong, Kate," she said while putting a hand on my shoulder. It felt awkward, but I didn't shrug it off, just in case it might anger her. "There are very few that could beat me in a fight, but you still did well for your age."

I nodded mutely and walked over to the tent flap.

I hesitated by the entryway.

_Well... she did show me not to put to much confidence and pride into my abilities..._

I turned my head back to her and said, "Thanks..."

Then, before she could say a word, I turned back around and left the tent. I could have sworn I felt her smiling behind me.

* * *

I found the gang still sitting around, sharing a few whispers, as I walked over to them, clutching the wound on my arm, hoping they wouldn't notice that I was spilling blood.

Joey seemed to be falling asleep out of boredom. He was just sitting there, leaning against a tree. His eyes would close and his head would nod off, but he would shake it to keep himself awake. He finally noticed me when I was about three feet away from him.

"Didn't I tell you not to get into any fights?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, actually, you didn't. So, shut up," I replied.

"Whatever," he said. "So why don't you tell good ol' Joey why you're bleeding?"

I couldn't help, but smile at his words.

"Well, Artemis and I talked about the lion. Then, I got her to tell me what the prophecy is," I explained. "and after that, I said that we should leave, but she said no. So, I said that we could take care of ourselves. She wanted me to prove that I could fight with my injuries and she attacked me. I had no choice, but to go along with it."

"Oh, sounds fun," he replied sarcastically. "Wait. Did you say that you know what the prophecy is?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'll tell you later. I wouldn't want to worry you about it yet."

He looked at me curiously, most likely, finally, noticing that I've been keeping stuff from him lately. Then he said, "Tomorrow morning."

I nodded. "Now, can you find me some nectar or ambrosia?"

* * *

For the rest of the day, we just tried to lay low amongst the hunters who, reluctantly, had come out of their tents for both lunch and dinner.

After dinner, Lilly and I tinkered a bit with one of our larger tents to make it even larger on the inside than how it looks on the outside so that we could all keep and eye on each other during the night. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

Though, strangely, I felt safer, knowing that we were with the hunt. It was kind of a weird feeling because I also felt more apprehensive. The long dream I had didn't help my confused feelings at all, it just made it worse.

_I looked around. I couldn't believe were I was; I was back in the last school I attended before camp. My few friends were sitting with me, eating our lunches and talking happily. Of course, we were happy. We had no idea what the world was really like. We were just innocent nine year olds._

_"So, what are you guys doing this weekend?" Grace asked. "Maybe you could come over my house."_

_"I can't," Sarah replied. "I'm going shopping on Saturday and then we have a baptism to go to on Sunday."_

_"Oh."_

_"I might be able to come over Sunday, but not Saturday," Maggie said._

_I had this weird sense of d__éjà vu and I finally realized why. This was the last day I would ever see my friends. This was that cursed day, five years ago._

___"Okay, I'll ask my mom and then call you," Grace told her. "What about you, Kate?"_

___"I think I can come; I'll talk to my mom about it," I said, except it wasn't the present me talking, it was the past me. I found myself unable to say anything else or move at all. It was all exactly how it happened when I was nine._

___"Alright."_

___The bell signaling the end of lunch rang. We quickly put our lunch boxes away and sat in our assigned seats._

___Thunder boomed outside; it has been raining the entire day. A few girls shrieked in fright, but what else would you expect?_

___The classroom phone rang and our teacher, Mrs. Caron, answered it. The class watched her in silence as she listened to the person on the other end of the call._

___"Hello," she greeted._

___We couldn't hear the other voice._

___"Yes," she said, giving me a quick glance. "Now?"_

___Silence._

___"Oh, my..." she whispered. Then she raised her voice back to normal. "Okay, she'll be down there as soon as possible."_

___Mrs. Caron placed the phone back into its place._

___"Kate, can you pack up and go to the principal's office?" she asked._

___I felt a pang of fear; I've been in his office before for meetings with him and my mom about my ADHD and dyslexia, but Mom was at work. _

___"Okay."_

___Mrs. Caron started to talk to the class about the proper was to write cursive letters, but I didn't pay attention. I quickly pack my backpack, put it on, and left the room with a small smile at my friends. I walked down the hallways to the office, wondering what I had done wrong and why I needed my things._

___The main office door was open, so I stepped in quietly._

___The secretary, Mrs. Ricky, said, "Good morning, Kate."_

___"Good morning," I replied quickly._

___"First door on the left."_

___"I know."_

___I walked into the principal's office and was shocked by who I saw inside there, speaking with Mr. Larry._

___"Aunt Stacy?" I asked._

___She smiled._

___The scene of my dream shifted into what I remember to be twenty minutes after I walked into the office. Aunt Stacy and I were standing in a hospital hallway. I cautiously followed her into a room on the right._

___"Mom!" I exclaimed, looking at the hospital bed where my mother lay. Her face was pale. She had a few bandages on her head, leg, and upper arm._

___"Hi, sweetie..." she replied with a weak smile._

___"What happened?" I demanded her and my aunt._

___"Well..." Aunt Stacy said while trying to come up with something to say. "Your mom decided to go to Dunkin' Donuts for her lunch break and, well, there was an accident; a few cars crashed into heres."_

___My mind was freezing up. My thoughts started to revolve around if Mom would be okay._

___There was an awkward silence._

___"Kate, are you okay?" Mom asked._

___"Yeah..."_

___"No matter what happens, I love you," she said._

___I nodded._

___The door opened behind us. Aunt Stacy and I turned around to find a young doctor standing there wait a clipboard and by "young", I mean he looked like he was barely twenty years old._

___"Excuse me, ladies," he said. "but I have to speak with Ms. Wolf alone."_

___"Of course, doctor," my aunt said while pulling me toward the door. "Come on, Kate."_

___We walked out of the room and she told me to sit down on a chair in the hallway while she would go to the cafeteria for some coffee. _

___I sat there, fidgeting around and I couldn't help hearing some of their conversation._

___"What... you... here?" my mom asked._

___"To... symptons... might happen."_

___"... real reason?"_

___"Have... help... and Kate..."_

___"... seen you... years... date." _

___"Yeah... I have to... you... before... die from injuries."_

___There was silence._

___"She... know anything... you or me..." Mom said after a while._

___"Of course."_

___"Will... tell...?"_

___"When... ready."_

___I heard footsteps coming from the room and the doctor came out._

___He smiled at me and said, "Hey, kiddo, do you know where your aunt went?"_

___"She-" I started to say._

___"I'm back," Aunt Stacy said as she walked over to us with her coffee._

___"I think Kate would like camp," the doctor said._

___My aunt looked confused for a few seconds, but the confusion was replaced by a looked of shock and she said, "Oh, yeah, no problem, sir. I'll take her there ASAP."_

___My dream shifted once more. This time I was standing next to a teenage boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. We were looking aat the top of Half-Blood Hill where Aunt Stacy was walking away._

___I felt all my emotions get very confused._

___"Come on, Kate," Luke said warmly. "Time to meet my numerous siblings and the rest of our family."_

___I nodded. _

___Before following Luke to the Hermes cabin, I looked back at the hill, hoping that Aunt Stacy would show up, take me back home, and say this was all a joke. Only, then, I didn't know that I would never see her or Mom again. There were letters, at first, but they stopped after one told me that Mom died._

___"This is only the beginning of the chaos that will form around you, little cub," a cold voice, that I never heard before, whispered from somewhere in my dream as everything started to turn black._

* * *

**Whew, finally done with the longest chapter I ever wrote. (Almost 5,000 words.) **

**I know the dream was kinda long, but I wanted to fit a lot in there.**

**I hope I managed to keep Artemis and Thalia in character.**

**And... what else was I going to say...**

***taps chin thoughtfully***

**Oh, yeah, to make this a popular story, can all you wonderful readers tell your friends about it?**

**The more the merrier, right?**


	6. Chapter 6

I woke with a start. I realized that I had been crying again. It really has been a long time since I had relived those memories...

Looking around the tent, I could see it was still night, but I was able to make out Joey sitting next my bed.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

I shook my head. "_Mom..._"

"I know," he said, his blue green eyes dark. "but there's nothing we can do about it."

I sighed.

* * *

The next morning, the Hunters had packed up their tents and were doing... whatever it is they usually do. Somehow, I found myself talking with Thalia.

"What do you mean, 'We're going to Camp Half-Blood?'" I asked.

"Lady Artemis had to go to Olympus for an emergency meeting and she specifically told us to go to camp and bring you along."

"We can't go back," I said. "After all our days out here in the real world... It would be pointless. Besides, Chiron will manage to make me feeling guilty for doing what I felt was right."

"Sorry," she replied. "I don't have much say in this, but it's for your own good. I really doubt that you and some of your friends in _any_ shape, both mentally and physically, to fight even a simple monster."

I knew it was hopeless to argue with her when she had a valid point, but I still said "We can't."

I knew that as much as I wanted to see camp again, I shouldn't; it would have made the past month completely useless.

_Why is this so confusing? I almost want to go, but I don't..._

_I hate this._

"Kate..." Thalia started.

"Whatever," I said and left to find Joey.

* * *

I couldn't believe I was doing this. I was about to pass into camp's borders, something I swore not to do.

Joey looked nearly as enraged as I was. We were not stupid. We knew that the Hunt would be a horrible enemy and they already were a bit cranky because of the three _ boys_' presence that they had to endure. There was no other choice than going to camp peacefully along with them.

Lilly actually looked excited, but I could tell she was trying to hide it. She could probably sense my... _dissatisfaction_ with the current situation.

David seemed bored, like he had for the entire time we were with the Hunt; they would not let him, or even me, kill a monster.

Nick was obviously deep in thought as he carefully took in our surroundings; he was as still and silent as a statue, which was strange for a demigod. I knew something had to be bothering him, but this wasn't the time to ask.

Natalie, for some odd reason, was muttering to herself every few seconds; I could have sworn she was pale. I definitely have to question her later, as well, just in case she wasn't simply worried about meeting the rest of her extended family.

Chaz, like Lilly, looked excited, but he didn't attempt to hide it; he was literally bouncing up and down. Though I suppose it made sense because all he knew about camp made it seem cool and it was just a new adventure.

I, however, grit my teeth and walked by Thalia's Pine following the Hunt, my annoyance growing with each step. Joey walked at my side, his chin held high; the others right behind us, except for Chaz who had decided to _hold my hand_ even though I had told him not to.

I looked at Thalia. "May we leave now?"

Before she could say anything, she was cut off by a man's voice.

"Thalia! Oh, it's good to see you again, my dear," Chiron said trotting up to us.

I saw Joey tense up beside me. With a quick glance behind me I saw David, Lilly, Chaz, and the twins staring at the centaur in silent bewilderment.

Thalia smiled. "It's good to see you, too, Chiron, but I'll talk to you at dinner; I have to make sure no one gets killed while we pass. Bye!" She followed the rest of the Hunt to their cabin.

Chiron turned to us with a smile. "Kate, Joseph, it's good to see you again." His smile faltered as if he just realized something. "Where is Kira? I thought she had left with you, too."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at my brother. "Can you show the kids around? Chiron and I will be right behind you guys."

"But..."

I gave him one of my "just do it" looks and nodded at Lilly, hoping he would understand that I'm just trying to avoid hurting her.

"Oh... Yeah," Joey said. He beckoned at the demigods. "Come on, guys, there's so much to show you! There's the arena, the Big House, the climbing wall..."

He left the centaur and I alone with the kids following.

Whatever previous mask of momentary fake happiness I had on my face before, faded once I knew they couldn't see me.

"She's dead," I said blandly. "I thought you knew."

Chiron furrowed his brow. "Is she really? I had no idea."

"But..." My voice trailed off just as the sun came out behind a cloud and conveniently shined brightly into my eyes.

"_Apollo_," I said through gritted teeth. "That lying, son of a..."

"You've had a dispute with your father?" Chiron asked before I could finish a phrase I would probably (knowing Apollo) regret saying sometime later.

"Something like that," I muttered. "He told us he was going to bring her body here, you know, so that we wouldn't have to worry about what to do with it, but _apparently_ he _didn't_."

"Perhaps he had more pressing issues to attend to," he said very carefully. "The gods are busy people, after all."

I glared up at the clouds. "Perhaps..."

He gave a small smile. "Come now, let's go catch up with your friends. With some luck we'll have them sorted into their cabins in time for dinner."

I nodded mutely; my brain was too full of rage to come up with an argument. I did not want _us_ separated.

* * *

"They keep staring at us," I muttered to Joey as we walked back to Apollo's Table in the mess hall. "The rest of Apollo's kids."

"I know! It's as if we disappeared for a month and suddenly showed up again," he replied with a sarcastic smile.

I rolled my eyes and sat down at the end of the table.

"But seriously," he said while sitting down across from me. "I noticed it, too. It's a little... strange."

"Yeah." I pushed the variety of fruits on my plate around with a fork. "They... Ever since we got here I've had a weird sense of foreboding. I bet they feel it."

"And so, they think it's our fault, right?"

I shrugged. "Probably..."

We fell into silence for a moment.

I took the time to look around the dining pavilion. I saw Lily grinning along with the rest of the Hermes kids, David talking to an older Ares boy, Nat laughing at something Annabeth Chase had said, and Nick giving an occasional smile from beside his sister. I glanced down our table to where Chaz was annoying Will Solace with countless questions about camp and I simply couldn't stop myself from laughing at the exhausted look on Will's face.

Joey smirked. "Oh, how I love that look on his face."

"You put Chaz up to this, didn't you?"

"Possibly..."

I sighed. He really should forgive Will already; it's been _years _since the incident.

We continued eating, talking every now and then. Soon, most of the campers had already sacrificed a portion of their dinner and walked of to their cabins for the night.

"Are you going to-"

"No," I said cutting Joey off. "The rest of our siblings offered him something; it won't make a difference if I do."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Kate, I know you're mad at dad, but you've been too risky lately. Sooner or later, he's going to snap and..."

"He wouldn't kill me."

For a second I though he would argue, but he sighed, took his plate, and walked to the giant fire. I didn't watch as he pushed some of his food into said fire. Instead, I met Chiron's eyes across the pavilion. He raised an eyebrow and I looked away.

Joey passed by our table and left, leaving me the only camper there.

I sat there for a couple minutes and then headed for my cabin.

* * *

**Forgive the shortness of this chapter; I tried.**


End file.
